Dominique Strauss-Kahn free from French cell after questioning about prostitute orgies

LILLE, France — Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from a French police station on Wednesday after two days of questioning about a series of sex parties.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was once considered the front-runner to become the next president of France, would appear before magistrates in March.

His lawyer Frederique Baulieu said his client was “very satisfied to have been heard” by investigators who questioned him on charges of “abetting aggravated pimping by an organised gang” and “misuse of company funds.”

A source close to the inquiry said earlier he would be issued with a summons to appear before the investigating magistrates either to be interviewed under caution as a witness or to face charges linked to prostitution and corruption.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, whose IMF job and prospects of becoming next French president ended in May after his arrest in New York on now-dropped sex assault charges, has been plagued since by the prostitution investigation in the northern French city of Lille.

It centers on allegations that a prostitution ring organized by business acquaintances of Mr. Strauss-Kahn supplied clients of Lille’s luxury Carlton Hotel.

Police want to establish whether the now-jobless Mr. Strauss-Kahn knew that women at parties he attended in Lille, Paris and Washington were prostitutes.

Related

Mr. Strauss-Kahn made no comment as he arrived by car for questioning early on Tuesday.

PARTY BACKGROUND

Two businessmen, Fabrice Paszkowski, a medical equipment tycoon with ties to Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party, and David Roquet, former director of a local subsidiary of building giant BTP Eiffage, have been charged in relation to the parties.

“People are not always clothed at these parties,” Henri Leclerc, one of his lawyers, recently told French radio.

“I challenge you to tell the difference between a nude prostitute and a classy lady in the nude.”

His view is backed up by Dominique Alderweireld, a Belgian pimp who goes by the nickname of “Dodo la Samure.” He told Europe 1 radio Tuesday Mr. Strauss-Kahn may not have given much thought to who, if anyone, had paid the women at the parties.

“It wasn’t his problem. All he was interested in was having sex. That’s it,” he said.

Mr. Paszkowski and Mr. Roquest are accused of links to a network of French and Belgian prostitutes centred on Lille’s Carlton Hotel, a well-known meeting place of the local business and political elite in a city run by the Socialist Party.

They have also told magistrates, Mr. Strauss-Kahn did not know the parties were paying events.

SEX WORKER EVIDENCE

The evidence from the sex workers themselves is contradictory.

Some have said the gatherings were presented as ad hoc orgies, while others have testified it was obvious participants were being paid for their services.

In all, eight people have been charged over the Carlton Affair, including three executives from the luxury hotel itself, a leading lawyer and the local deputy police chief, Jean-Christophe Lagarde.

Paying a prostitute is not illegal in France, but profiting from vice or embezzling company funds to pay for sex can lead to charges.

The last of the sex parties is said to have taken place during a trip to Washington and the IMF headquarters on May 11-13 last year by Mr. Paszkowski and Mr. Roquet, in part to discuss Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s presidential bid.

FATEFUL NEW YORK TRIP

One day later, on May 14, Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s career fell apart when he was arrested in New York after allegations he had subjected chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo to a brutal sexual assault in his hotel suite.

The case eventually collapsed when prosecutors began to doubt Ms. Diallo’s credibility as a witness, and Mr. Strauss-Kahn returned home to France to face further investigation and scandal.

First, Tristane Banon, a 32-year-old writer, accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003. Prosecutors decided there was prima facie evidence of a sexual assault, but ruled the statute of limitations had passed.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s heiress wife, the journalist Anne Sinclair, has stood by him since the allegations erupted, but the website she edits — the French edition of The Huffington Post — led its front page with the scandal.